IIS 7 Components for Shared Hosting

Introduction

IIS 7 and above makes it easier for system administrators to help secure and manage shared hosting environments. To deploy a Web server and host thousands of Web sites on it, server administrators need to configure and isolate sites from each other. This article provides recommendations for server administrators running in such environments.

IIS provides a modular architecture that lets you customize the components that you want to install on the Web server. IIS contains more than 40 components that you can independently install on the server. Installing only the modules that you need dramatically reduces the potential attack surface, and lowers the footprint requirements on the server.

Table

The following table lists the components that were installed on the Web server as part of the shared hosting architecture mentioned in the Shared Hosting Setup article in "Planning the Web Hosting Architecture". Based on the shared hosting environment that you use, define your own set of components to install that meet your business needs.

Component

Installed?

Reason

Web Server

Yes

This is the core Web server.

Common HTTP Features

Includes commonly used features such as enabling static content (HTML, jpeg, etc.) or default documents.

Static Content

Yes

The Web server can serve static content, such as .html, .css, and .jpeg files, if you enable this option.

Default Document

Yes

When a visitor enters www.site.com but does not provide a specific document name, such as default.aspx, this feature allows the visitor to be seamlessly directed to the default document defined for the Web site.

Directory Browsing

Yes

Allows users browse the contents of a directory.

HTTP Errors

Yes

Allows error messages sent to a visitor's browser to be customized and for the server administrator to see the new detailed errors on the local Web server.

HTTP Redirection

Yes

Allows hosted customers to redirect requests for one URL to be redirected to another.

Application Development

Allows applications to be developed and run on the server, such as ASP.NET.

Needed to script tasks, allows programmatic management of the server using scripts.

Management Service

Yes

Needed to allow remote management of IIS and to allow delegated users to administer their sites using a remote manager tool.

IIS 6 Management Compatibility

Yes (if needed)

Do not install unless compatibility with features, services, scripts and management tools for IIS 6.0 is required.

IIS Metabase Compatibility

Yes (if needed)

Required for SharePoint v3, ASP.NET 1.1, SMTP service and other features requiring backwards compatibility with the metabase. Provides compatibility for scripts based on IIS 6.0 interfaces for ADSI (Active Directory Service Interface) and ABO (Admin Base Object).

Note: This table refers to the built-in, legacy FTP server. It is highly recommended that you download and install the new FTP7 server if you need to offer FTP publishing to your users. It is available at Installing and Troubleshooting FTP7.

FTP Management Console

No

Only needed if users upload using FTP.

Note: Install only the components required for the shared hosting environment. For example, if Digest Authentication is not needed, do not enable it.